half human/half machine - downloading training data...

[biggurl27]

2kgs in 4 days :shock:

Reading your journal it is hard coming to terms with you gaining muscle whilst doing high repetitions and low weights, however you are eating a shit load of food.

You sound very passionate and determined with your progress. Do you have a social life or is this your life? Hows the hair today, shiny?

[Android]

2kgs in 4 days :shock:

Reading your journal it is hard coming to terms with you gaining muscle whilst doing high repetitions and low weights, however you are eating a shit load of food.

You sound very passionate and determined with your progress. Do you have a social life or is this your life? Hows the hair today, shiny?

LOL - my coat is shiny today thanks :wink:

2 kg in 4 days is unlikely to be pure meat, but also unlikely to be pure fat. I'd say with the Creatine it's muscle volume (more water and carbs soaked into the muscle)....maybe 1 kg is undigested food \:D/

Honestly I didn't believe in high reps either for gaining muscle either Biggurl.

I did learn that you can't do it without eating clean and eating loads, supplementing heaps, and resting when your body needs to rest. It's extremely taxing on the muscles and the central nervous system to work muscles to failure and drain them every session.

I have had B12-shots occassionally just to cope or I get serious signs of overtraining like a cloudy mind, lethargy etc. (my bad, not the systems, I can't stay away from the gym as I have to have a break midday from work so I do gym and I have training partner/s who want to train with me in the evenings).

But it works and it reminds me of something Ronnie C said once or twice (even tho he did heavy weights!)...."it's called bodybuilding, you have to do high enough reps to build a body".

Anyway, we'll see where this takes me, my previous maximum weight was 4 months ago and I was 100kg and 16% b.f.

I am 100kg today and about 12%b.f so we'll see how far this takes me past my absolute limit, I'd say I'm about 4kg better off already...ahhh the beauty of a journal ay.

night!

[Android]

My social life....that's a good question.

I used to have to think about what I did each day for 'the cause' of bodybuilding but now it's just part of my life. But you did make me stop and think what it is that I do now without thinking about it, here are a few things....

I carry a bag with me whenever I go out, always.

I put my water bottle in it and I load up a shaker with a scoop or two of protein powder which I'll have if I don't eat within a couple of hours.

I'm not a protein bar fan so if I go out for longer than a couple of hours I cook chicken or eggs, or take cold ham (haven't done cold ham for ages but used to eat it everyday). I take fruit with me as well.

If I go out anywhere I have to eat before I go out, it's so I don't have to start wondering about the next meal for at least an hour. And when I get home from where-ever...it's straight into more food/ mainly a meat source.

I do normal things, I just plan ahead now without thinking about it.

I'd consider myself to have been living like a part-time bodybuilder for the last 8 years. I remember in my first 3 years I was signgle and dedicated and I would force myself to nap for an hour at midday for recovery purposes after the lunch meal. I would ask the sandwich bar lady to add double meat and no salad and pay extra for that, I would eat 5 bananas a day without fail, I would force myself to do nothing on the weekends and turn down offers to go night-clubbing.

I don't do any of that now so I am getting better at it, now I just plan ahead and make allowances to live a normal life. I'm married, a baby girl arriving mid-January, a businessman, and a bodybuilder, so everyday for me is a balancing act to make sure I put time into all of the above roles.

Great question! It really made me think

How about you, what do you do besides your love of bodybuilding, are u living 'normal' :-)

[biggurl27]

In other words you have no life :grin: Just jokes. I'm about the same, though 2 baby girls (3+5). Congrats yay baby on the way, prepare yourself for broken nights sleeps - but well worth it. I have no life really besides kids, work, gym, rest though I like to hang with friends and incorporate them into training with different people, hanging out and watching dvds or hitting the movies, visiting, or out for coffee. New interest is powerlifting, (scratches head thinking) nup I have no hobbies. Kids are great time fillers.

Its always interesting to see what gym goers do as most bodybuilders don't really get up to a lot

[Varven]

How do your respective partners deal with your habbits and gym time ?

[biggurl27]

Easy don't have one :grin:

[Android]

How do your respective partners deal with your habbits and gym time ?

Ohh opening a big can of worms here....mine doesn't like it, I had to congratulate myself after 3 big wins in the last few weeks, my trophies are tucked away in the garage :-(

[Flamer]

How do your respective partners deal with your habbits and gym time ?

Yip - last one just had to go. Couldn't understand it or cope with the grumpy carb-free dragon (pre-comp)

[biggurl27]

Yep it is quite hard on the other half if they aren't into the sport and training at the same time. Well on the upside Android its only because your better half would rather have that time with you instead of you being at the gym. When I was in relationship I would got at 5.30am and lunchtime so evenings free.

[2guns]

When I was in relationship I would got at 5.30am and lunchtime so evenings free.

hmmm feel sorry for that unlucky guy

[Varven]

Oh and the other stuff, like no tapping after squats lol....

I cant bend cause my lower back is in DOMS....etc

[Android]

Todays food was 1kg (raw weight) chicken but at midday replaced some of that with a trip to a chinese place for Duck, Pork and rice. Was a work thing so can't say no.

But I felt sleepy about 3pm so went for a 30min power nap in the lounge room at work.

Didn't do abs classes, just had the evening workout.

I start every workout with a pre-workout mix, today was again NOXplode, BCAAs, and a PowerGel. Now I'm wired for a workout!

Tonight was Chest and Triceps on my own, so I headed to the bench press and warmed up with 100 reps of just the bar. By about 75 I was starting to feel a pump and the chest had some lactic acid feeling but I did 100 easily.

Then I threw 20's on either side and did 4 sets of 20, sometimes I could only get out 12 before the lactic acid hurt way to much and I wanted to cry (lol kidding just dramatising an otherwise normal workout!), so I did a rest pause and carried on with the other 8. At the end of each set my chest hurt and was pumped. I didn't go to arms lockout instead I imagined squeezing my pecs at the top, this is too hard to do with a heavy weight and a bar (easy with dumbbells) so light weight bench press is not a waste of time.

Sidenote:

Btw, if you're trying to put on muscle and you're skinny...don't do bench press....ever. Applies to Ectomorphs only. This was the absolute best advice ever given to me about an exercise. Bench press is for strong people, the arms tire before your large chest muscle will ever tire so stay away from it while you have small arms and stick to incline dumbbells. I honestly avoid telling people that what works for me will work for them but in this instance I believe it holds true for most Ectomorphs starting out. After 3 years never touching a bar I have a chest that is my biggest asset because I followed that principle. I can do bench press now (max = 170kg) but it's not necessary for building muscle if your arms aren't up to it.

Time for incline dumbbells...I went straight for 20's and did 20-25 rep sets, again with a rest-pause to get 20+ done, and I rested for maybe 30secs maximum.

That was chest :-) if you've seen my chest you'll know it doesn't need anymore size or encouragment to grow...so I moved on to Triceps.

Pushdowns with a bent bar 50 reps and it was hurting by about 30 so I had rest-pauses for the last 20. Triceps were swelling up by now and I increased the weight to get out 3 sets of 20+ reps.

Went and did a Tricep machine I don't know the name of, it's like a preacher curl for triceps where you sit down and do tricep things with it.

Usual 30rep warmup hurt like hell and I increased the weight by just 2 plates and I couldn't get out 15 after that. Now I was starting to really swell up in the arms so switched to tricep kickbacks which is a less aggressive exercise and my biceps went down but triceps stayed pumped.

Finished off with the exercise where you get a seat and put your hands behind you on the seat and lower yourself down, and then up. I concentrated on the up movement and squeezed at the top and in the mirror my tricep had lost it's cut look and was just a big swelling lump,,,felt fantastic and could feel the tricep against my lats as I walked...wicked!

I took a photo but my iPhone doesn't have zoom so I went close and didn't fit into the frame, will get a mate to take a photo on Friday after shoulders. This evening on the scales I was 101kg in my gym gear (my weight is always wearing gym clothes), so I am in new territory here with this weight.

I naturally feel a bit slower, sluggish, lost the spring in my step I guess u could say but that's bulking up for you. I think my goal of 5kg above my max is attainable by early next year, then another few kg over the remaining 6 months could see me on stage with a whole new look - I'm excited 8)

Tomorrow...must be abs, has to be.

Food tomorrow is chicken and kumara, the oats everyday is a bit too much fibre if u know what I mean

[Android]

Last nights dinner was beef, potatoes, and veges, then before bed I had a bowl of oats soaked in water (about 100gms dry weight is 60gm carbs, 10gm protein, 2g fat = 300 calories) and a double-serve protein shake and added glutamine and creatine.

This morning I woke up with a tight chest, not bad for just 2 chest exercises last night. I know if I wasn't so soaked in creatine, water, carbs, protein, glutamine etc that I would get the DOMS severely from that workout. As the day goes on we'll see what happens but I expect it to not get worse as long as I keep up the food and supplement intake.

This mornings breakfast was split between home and work I ran out of time with things to do when I got up with business. I managed to cook x12 egg whites with a couple of yolks getting past my fingers and into the pan. So it was porridge and green tea/ginseng at home and then x6 scrambled egg whites when I got to work at 8.

No chicken today! I didn't want o tcook the chicken I had in the fridge it was there for 2 days so never taking a risk even if it's a waste of money. I would rather take chicken out of the freezer and microwave it on defrost than cook raw chicken thats been standing in the fridge for more than a day. Paranoid?...a little. But a case of bad food now would set me back physically, and mentally too as I am on a roll right now.

I cooked Kumara last night (1kg is 2 oversized kumaras), got my oats, another 6 egg whites, and 2 tins of tuna (185g each).

I'll have to buy morning tea which will be a filled roll, and also afternoon tea which will be the same probably. Buying food out is not my preference if I had to buy all my food for the day it would be $30-$50 here in the city easily if I brought good meat-filled food.

Looking forward to abs class today it's just a 15 minute workout!

[tikalosh]

hey bro sum good advice on the benchpress for ecto's, did barbell bench for ages and my forearms n tris would ALWAYS fail b4 chest so switched to d/b incline presses exclusively for the last year and made some solid progress.

[Varven]

Chicken in the fridge for up to 5 days is fine as long as you cook it thoroughly.

Myself and a friend are living proof of this.

[biggurl27]

Yep I agree with the bench thing, and with chicken I live by the 2 day rule as too chicken :pfft:

[Varven]

Bro i can c chest pumps work well for you in terms of growth, but Ive always thought about it this way:

Stand on your toes 200 times, you'll get a calf pump.

doing that everyday doesnt makes your calves grow right ?

So pump does not = growth unless you are progressing in weights and reps without taking reps into a "cardio zone".

So did you develop your chest from day one doing this sort of work?

or back int he old days when you just started did you do conventional progression like the rest of us?

im talking about your 1st year in the gym when you were a skinny kid...

[Android]

Yeah I did heavy weights just like everyone else, always trying to go heavier for 8 reps. It was the usual 1 warmup set, 3 working sets later switched to 2 warmup sets (1 'feel and form' set @20-40% working weight, and 1 warmup @ 70% working weight)...just a guide I never did maths in the gym I promise!

[Android]

Stand on your toes 200 times, you'll get a calf pump.

doing that everyday doesnt makes your calves grow right ?

So pump does not = growth unless you are progressing in weights and reps without taking reps into a "cardio zone".

Untrue my friend, untrue.

The 200 times you stand on your toes can be a waste of time if you just do the numbers. If you squeeze hard at the top and standing on a board stretch at the bottom the 200 you do like that you can produce muscle growth.

But to be honest it won't be the same growth you get from heavy calf raises. You won't stimulate the skeletal muscle for instance so your overall calf size will only 'pump' as you say and not grow. The meat around the top of your ankles might not grow much either to give your lower legs a bigger look.

But...the peaks that create a diamond shape on the inside of your calve will be stimulated on the motion that goes from the very bottom up through to about midway up. That's the way we all contract our calves to show the diamond part (try it) so that's the point where it happens.

Throw a heavy weight on instead as you suggest and how we all started out doing it and you'll not isolate that exact area, other parts of the leg will help as well (skeletal muscle which you have very little 'mind over muscle' control over kicks in). The peak will grow with heavy weights please don't think that I think it won't. But it will grow along with the whole calve as well which then makes the peak less noticeble and you're back to square one, a less pronounced peak when compared to the rest of the calf.

This relates to chest to, I don't want more meat on my overall chest, I want quality muscle placed at end points and I want the place where it dips inbetween the pecs to be deeper, to raise above the skin higher. You can't do that with heavy weights I'm sorry, the whole chest will grow () as we've both agreed happens) and make the difference between the peaks and valleys I am trying to create less pronounced. I will end up with a bigger chest than I have now but that's no good to me.

Hope that helps explain the 'pump'-style, it's not just about the 'pump'

[Varven]

makes sense. chest is your most developed so you can dial it back a notch or two.

That stretch you talk about on the calves.. fascia stretching... seems to be a core principle of D.C. training as well... and Ive seena c ouple of old timers at my gym who swear by it too.

Ive just stuck it into my routines and seem to have noticed a slight difference already.

[Android]

They might just be stretching for their arthritis :-D

[Android]

Back into it....

Workout at midday was abs class, I arrived 30 minutes early to do biceps so i can just do Shoulders tomorrow now.

Pre-workout was NO-Xplode, Glutamine, and BCAAs. I also took a midday dose of 'Stoked'. Have been doing that 3 times a day instead of the prescribed AM and PM dose.

This bicep workout started with an ezy-curl bar and 2.5 kg each side. I did 50 reps, the last 10...ok maybe last 15 were rest-pauses the pain was killing me I wish I had dropped a painkiller or taken some H+Blocker. Each rep was squeezed out hard and after the first 30 it's easy to just not squeeze but had to persevere. I was reminded of what we were talking about on this forum earlier, not counting reps but getting the squeeze done. I'd rather fail after 40 squeezes than get out another 10 that I didn't squeeze.

I put on 5kg more each side and after 20+ reps I lost count and may have done 25 or 30 but doubled over in pain at the end. They swelled up nicely and veins popped out from shoulder to forearms the result is good, the journey is not.

I dropped the weight back to 2.5kg each side and did 20+ reps only just for another 2 painful sets.

Then I went over and did concentration curls with a 6kg dumbbell, 20+ reps squeezing each arm. The bottom half of this exercise is difficult to squeeze with a light weight it's definitely a muscle-peak exercise.

Back to the ez-curl bar and did bent-over curls with 2.5kg plates each side and by then it was abs class time. Biceps were rock hard and enjoyed the rush of blood after the pain had gone down in the first few seconds of ending a set. Stretched them out but they still felt tight as a drum hope they don't limit my shoulder presses tomorrow night.

Abs class was ok had to throw in some of my own work as the class was basic and I don't care for the lower ab work much.

Seems the tops of my legs hurt more than the lower abs so leg raises and variations of that don't do it for me. Although it does help the tie-ins so not all bad, I have a long waist so curling it right up and over with a squeeze really works well, as does lying right back arched on a swiss ball and curling from that position.

Anyway, gald I did abs was feeling neglected and I would feel guilty if I missed them this week

Post workout was the usual double-serve of protein powder, about 50gms glucose and creatine. Got back to work and had my nuts, a bowl of oats, and just chowing down on tuna about an hour after the workout.

No more workout until tomorrow night, so protein and some carbs from this point forward are for repair, and rest of carbs are for tomorrow's workout ... time to eat!

[Android]

Today I slept in an hour, and was tired last night so it's a good indication I should have rested yesterday and not gone to the gym. My chest is 'tweaking' as I call it. It means if I walk and swing my arms I feel tight across the chest. No pain, just feels tight as a drum.

I'm no physician but I always view any tightening of a muscle or tendon after a workout as having received adequate stimulation as to warrant growth.

This morning was the usual breakfast, have packed 400gms chicken and 200gms salmon and 300gms oats for food for the day so will have to buy more food, filled rolls or something like that.

Shoulders tonight, big night, psyching up for it already and imagining how the workout will go. Plan to take a Panadol beforehand so can push myself a bit further. Will eat and rest until Sunday evenings workout so can push myself over any limits I might have, tonight.

[Luigi]

hey i notice you do very high reps

do you get more muscle growth from doing 30x15kg on bi curls than say doing 15x30kg ??

[Android]

hey i notice you do very high reps.

do you get more muscle growth from doing 30x15kg on bi curls than say doing 15x30kg ??

Hey Luigi,

Yeah I get a good constant growth from higher reps but at a cost, recovery is way more important these days. I find I am stimulating more muscle than before as more of the muscle seems to hurt.

I can't say whether or not I get more sorry, I've been doing 8 rep sets for 6 years, 12 rep sets of 2 years, and this high rep range for 1 year. I was on stage a year ago at 84.5kg, this year I went on at 91kg. Previous years I did not compete but from 68kg - 98kg averages to 3kg gain a year. So I think a 5kg gain in a year is a better gain. (Not true 5kg muscle gain mate I'm not superman, I think prep was better, last year I dieted, this year I did not) but all things equal it was better overall.

Lifting heavy weights employs things like skeletal muscle to help (heavy squats you can't deny that even the muscles that run down the leg have to be turned on to help you stand up), yet its the quads I want to work, not the skeletal leg muscle. When I was skinny sure the heavy weight and compound exercises build up your frame and skeletal muscle which is what beginners need. I built up like everyone else on heavy sets so not canning that approach or giving it away...

I plan to measure myself soon mate, once I have finished this springboard effect from post-comp where you shoot up in weight so quickly I'll do that else the results won't be fair. Then I'll baseline the measurements (weight means nothing right, it's size for bodybuilding) and can gauge accurately the growth from there over the next 3 months, will give a more accurate indication of what it actually does achieve in terms of size.